Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

With regard to forthcoming legislation and to put the record straight, there was no mention of €2 billion or €5 billion for the sale of State assets in the original memorandum of understanding agreed with the troika. That was something the Government decided to include in line with Fine Gael's policy, in particular, and it is wrong to continue to mislead people about this fact. The Minister for Finance is on record articulating on a number of occasions in the House how the sale of State assets in terms of what is being proposed and revealed was introduced into the Government's memorandum of understanding with the troika. Perhaps that is being done to appease Labour Party backbenchers and that is why Labour Party Ministers are deliberately misleading about this.

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